Quote:
Originally Posted by ssiguy
It serves nearly no one, goes by no major employers, colleges, universities, or even high density neighbourhoods. This line is akin to building the Evergreen Line from just Lougheed to Port Moody.
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That's, unfortunately, a pretty ignorant opinion based entirely in no facts because for your claim to be an accurate argument against SkyTrain extension, you're in essence also saying the current SkyTrain network is pointless.
Are you? I mean does current SkyTrain go to UBC? No. Does it go to SFU Burnaby? No. Does it go by BCIT? No. How about any of the satellite campuses in Vancouver/Richmond? No.
So what major campuses does SkyTrain currently go right by? VCC and SFU Surrey. While I think it is a disservice not to serve major education locations, it hasn't been a requirement for the previous SkyTrain lines so why does it suddenly have to be a requirement for Surrey's extension? And Trinity Western doesn't count. It has about as many students as some high schools have in Surrey and is a private religious institution. Only major campus I would be for having mass transit would be Kwantlen and they would be hugely served by having SkyTrain down Fraser Highway to Langley City both to service its Langley campus (not far from terminus) and its Cloverdale location (a bus ride down 176th or from Langley City down HWY 10 after bus reconfigurations).
Same with density. Every other city serviced by SkyTrain, the backbone of this network, has been able to get a line BEFORE densifying, yet always Surrey has to be super dense before it deserves it? Ridiculous.
What about major employers? Well if you want to be specific, there are many major employers not next to SkyTrain today so that was never a requirement in the past, but I'd counter-argue that being in a City Center itself is equivalent to being near the major employers.
A SkyTrain extension to Langley City puts that entire line and many KM between them in direct link to Surrey Central which itself is a major employer center and growing yearly. It also extends the reach to those that do commute out of SoF and would allow Translinks to reconfigure the bus network to be less "Vancouver centric" and more "backbone inter-center" centric.
Buses today in Surrey are mainly geared toward getting you to Surrey Central. I had to take a bus from my place in Surrey Central on Fraser Highway to a location in Guildford. I had two transit choices, walk all the way to the B-line and take it to Guildford then walk another 2 km to my destination. Or take a bus down Fraser Highway to 152nd then switch buses to one down 152nd to my destination.
I chose the second as Google said it would be fastest and it took me 1 hour to get to my destination including waiting for 2 buses on both legs. FYI it takes 45 minutes for me to WALK the entire distance so it would have been quicker for me just to walk the entire way than take the buses except for the fact I had a 3 year old with me so walking would have been a pain. For the record it takes 5 minutes to drive the same route but car wasn't actually an option in this instance.
Our bus system is designed stupidly because it is Vancouver centric as the only mass transit point is in the top left corner. That needs to be changed and this would change it drastically.
Finally, you said a vast majority of SoF residents work SoF also. Vast majority is an overstatement and not based in actual fact. It is a majority, but VAST makes it sound more than it is.
Last statistics show that 45% of Surrey residents live and work in Surrey, 8% in Delta, and 5ish % in other SoF areas. That is 58% of Surrey residents living and working in Surrey.
That still means 42% of residents work NoF. which is NOT an insignificant amount of people nor would I classify 58% as
vast.
That's different for Township of Langley residents. The VAST majority of them DO work SoF as only 6% work in Vancouver. So that means having a mass transit between there and Surrey would largely benefit them because the bus grid could also be adjusted there to reflect the new mass transit SkyTrain backbone. It would also be a boon to Surrey Central building up commercial and business demand further pulling jobs out to SoF to the benefit of Surrey residents and even further locations like Abbotsford and the Fraser Valley.
Any other solution including the inter-urban which is just a glorified West Coast Express and only would in-reality serve people working and commuting between major city destinations is just not based in any reality. Looks amazing on paper but in practice is a really clueless solution. I would also caution everyone that any initiative that includes Bill Vander Zalm should be avoided at all cost. Just look up his track record (I lived it btw) and you'll see that pretty much all his initiatives as a disgraced Premier who had to resign have been detrimental to tax-payers including his after politics fight against to kill the HST and his introduction as Premier of the Property Transfer Tax which contributes to housing affordability issues we all enjoy today.
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